Long Way Round
by trainlindz
Summary: Alice waits in Philadelphia in 1948 for Jasper to finally fulfill his future.
1. Chapter 1

_This is will be a three part fic :)_

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Every day, Alice walked down the deserted dirt road and into the small diner filled to the brim with hope.

Today could be the day. She could finally be meeting Jasper.

For close to two months she had been spending her rainy afternoons in the small diner. She'd order a large black coffee from the lady behind the counter then make her way to the booth beside the window and sit for hours, watching the steam roll off her cup of coffee as it cooled between her hands while she waited for Jasper to come to her. She tried to keep her grin to a minimum, trying not to frighten the humans that filled the space, but the excitement was trying to burst right out of her skin. She couldn't help but wonder if this is how human children felt waiting for Christmas morning, to finally see the gifts they know are coming to them.

Rain was pouring down outside, hitting the windows hard, making the humans in the diner fret slightly about flooding in their basements while Alice simply wondered if Jasper had found himself some cover from the horrible weather elsewhere. She was having a harder time following him of late. He was still destined to meet her there, but as he was wandering aimlessly, no real decisions being made, it was tough to track – timeline unpredictable.

She knew that if she was truly like the humans, she would have grown impatient waiting for someone who didn't know he was looking for her to show up. Unlike their human response, she was getting more eager by the day. The time could only be getting closer. Jasper was coming.

Minutes ticked by and she sat in her booth slowly filling in a crossword puzzle. The kitchen staff was use to seeing her but their uneasiness didn't dwindle. Their instincts held them back, kept them from coming forward to try and top off her un-drunk coffee or telling her to leave if she wasn't going to order anything. They let her wait in peace for Jasper.

The first vision she had upon awakening as a vampire was of travelling with Jasper with their hands joined together as they walked through the forest leisurely yet somehow at an amazing speed. At the time she hadn't understood what it was. Did she know this stranger? Was he the one who was responsible for whatever was happening to her? Did he cause this unexplainable _thirst_?

No, she didn't know this man, but something made itself undeniably clear that she would. By watching this man, this Jasper, she discovered that what she saw was the future unfolding ahead of time.

The flashes grew more frequent over time and she watched him, learning about him, waiting until she would be able to see their meeting. She watched him hunt with two others for years until one day he split from them and finally head in a direction where their paths would cross. The vision had come to her while she was travelling alone outside of Boston, swirling through her mind. She saw the rain pouring down outside a small diner that had wood paneled walls that needed to be replaces lining the dining room and a dusty chandelier made with broken coffee cups hanging dangerously low from the ceiling. A long counter stretched across the back wall where the cook fried the food right in front of the customers. A large sign was painted on the wall behind him boasting that that they had the best cheese steak in Philadelphia for 2.99. Alice could see herself in the back corner booth, waiting, slowly stirring a coffee in front of her when he pulled the door open, making the bell dangling above it jingle lightly, looking from shelter from the rain.

Jasper would turn to her, sensing her apart from the humans and would approach cautiously, dark hungry eyes not leaving her face. It would be then that he would know what she knew; that they were two halves of the same whole. She was the letters to his unfinished crossword puzzle he didn't even know he was filling in yet.

He would take her hand into hers and the smallest of smiles would etch its way across his face. That was the moment that she was most looking forward to. She had been spying on Jasper's life for decades and she had never seen him look anything other then what could only be described as morose. Just to know that she would be the one to bring a look of such pure joy onto his face was worth anything and everything that she had gone through to get up to this point. Even if this turned out to be their only meeting, if his path changed not to align itself with hers, that smile would be all she would need.

She wondered what he would be like when they met. Seeing a person in real life was much different then seeing a photograph. She was getting more curious to learn about the real him. Would he laugh at her jokes? Would he participate in her wild ideas or most recent experiments in hunting animals? Would he think she was too short? There were just so many questions that she couldn't know the answers to and Alice couldn't wait to uncover them.

Recently, she had been having visions of the two of them with another group, a family. Every day she was growing to like these people more, knowing that she and Jasper would be invited into their home. It was from these Cullens' that she had started hunting animals instead of humans. With each successful hunt, her eyes were changing into a deep gold to match those of Carlisle and the others in her visions. She wondered how Jasper would look with these eyes, beautifully matching his honey coloured hair.

The storm was beginning to break up and the droplets of rain against the windows were slowing to a halt indicating to her that her window of opportunity had closed for the day. In her visions, she always met Jasper in the rain as he came to the diner to duck out of the storm. Without the rain, he didn't have reason to come near her diner. As the storm was ending, she knew that today was not the day. She closed her puzzle book, bookmarking her page with her pen, and tucked it neatly into her handbag. Laying out a sizable tip on the table, she nodded to the waitress and headed towards to the door.

Alice walked out of the diner and back down the long, muddy road, galoshes sinking into the puddles, still filled with that same hope.

Tomorrow could be the day.

_Thanks for reading - reviews are lovely :)_


	2. Chapter 2

The dreary weather reflected his mood, but sometimes Jasper wondered if it wasn't the other way around. If he learned that there was a direct correlation between his miserable state and the torrential downpour he found himself in, he wouldn't be surprised in the least. Although if that was truly the case, he supposed the sun would never peek itself out from behind the gloom.

It was pure coincidence that he was miserable in the miserable conditions.

Wandering aimlessly for weeks, he had no real idea of where he was other then that he knew he was headed east. Reaching the edge of the trees he found himself on the outskirts of a small town. Tiny houses lined the street, their lights twinkling in the night's darkness, within which he could hear the quiet talking, gentle snores and the murmuring of radio programmes coming from those within. The humans were safe inside their sanctuaries for the night, unaware that there was a monster roaming the streets metres from where they sat.

He ducked under a small awning jutting out of the side of a house, trying to ignore the flames that were building in the back of his throat, clawing their way up and overwhelming the rest of his thoughts. The monster in him was furious; wanting, needing to be sated though the man in him was trying to ignore it and push it aside. It wasn't really working and as most days, the burn was the only thing he could focus on, and it was a constant battle for balance between the physical and the emotional. The pain of thirst was nothing compare to the pain and regret he would feel from feeding. The terror that would wash over him as he fed was indescribable as the fear and pain that flowed out of a human as it was killed brutally planted itself under his skin, and had festered until there was nothing left inside, taunting him from within. When he didn't feed, he felt emotionally hollow and that emptiness was a strange relief from the torture.

He was floundering between his two hells.

For over a week he had been denying his primal urges, trying to stave off the eventuality of the situation as his eyes faded from their crimson red into dark shadows. As much as he wanted to avoid it, it would only be a matter of time before he would crumble to the beast within and feed off another human's life force, draining them of their nectar. He would either feed by choice or his instincts would take control, and he would find himself surrounded by a massacre when the rationality returned to him mind. He had tried to explain to Peter and Charlotte what happened to him when he fed, and although they were sympathetic, they hadn't really understood. How could something that was essential to his existence and taste so good, feel so wrong? Did his power make him some sort of defective vampire unable to carry out his basic instincts? It certainly wasn't normal.

As a human, Jasper had craved interaction, liking to be social and being surrounded by others. It made him feel alive, and he missed being surrounded by his family, both of the traditional nature and the one he had made for himself. As a vampire, it was becoming increasingly difficult to do so even among his own kind. At the beginning it had be easy. When he had been a crazed newborn the thirst ruled all, emotions be damned, but the farther he got away from that initial madness, the more it began to effect him. The cries and anguish were bothering him in a way he couldn't explain and being with Maria made him feel pain, as her joy in the kill was sadistic, so he had fled. Living with Peter and Charlotte was slightly better but despite their good intentions, made him feel lost as it only pointed out how different he was. He had left them all behind to be by himself, hoping to at least find some silence. It wasn't working. At heart, he knew he wasn't a nomad, wasn't meant to wander without direction. Jasper needed someone to make him feel whole again. Someone who would understand, empathise with him for a change. He couldn't be the only one like this.

The last time he had fed had been absolutely horrifying. The man had been round and middle aged, hair greying around the temples and he had been stumbling through the forest, crossing unknowingly into Jasper's path. Without thinking he had pounced silently and as the warm blood pooled in his mouth he felt the typical terror and fear coming off the human but as the man's heart slowed, the last emotion that flooded out of his body was completely different. It was of love; pure, unconditional love. Whomever the man had been thinking about was enough to separate him from his plight, giving him solace in his death. His last breath left his body, and he was thinking of someone he loved. Jasper had almost thrown up with his own guilt of taking that feeling away from the man, and knowing that causing this death would leave another person heartbroken. He couldn't willingly bring himself to do it again.

Standing under his shelter from the rain, the mouth watering scent of the humans was becoming increasingly pungent. It had been so long since he had fed and there were just too many of them, too close; surrounding him within their houses and the venom was thickening in throat and dripping off his teeth. It would be too easy to walk in and take his fill on some unsuspecting family. Jasper knew that if these people were going to live through the night, he was going to have to move back into the forest quickly and continue on his solitary march; move back into the darkness.

For a creature that wasn't able to sleep Jasper felt absolutely exhausted. This type of living was killing him painstakingly slowly, hour by hour. The darkness wasn't going to let up, and the knowledge of that was making him feel extraordinarily worse. Days were full of horror, grief and depression, but mainly he just felt tired of existing. Jasper continued to look for something to hold on to, something that would stop him from drowning. He didn't have an idea on what that was, but he was sure he would know it when he saw it.

Slipping silently back into wet trees Jasper began his journey once more, as the rain continued to pour down around him, soaking him all the way into his soul.

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_Hope you enjoyed Part 2 - Reviewers get extra love :)_


	3. Chapter 3

He couldn't explain why he took her hand. Something just drew his into hers, fingers entwining; magnetized. It was as if it had always meant to be there. How had his hand ever felt complete without hers wrapped safely inside it before? Either way, he had it now and didn't ever intend on letting it go. The empty space within his core had been filled the second that he set his eyes on Alice. She was the thing he had been so desperately searching for. She was the part of him that had been missing for all this time. She was his as much as he was hers.

Walking down the road side by side, hands loosely connecting them to each other, he kept peeking at her out of the corner of his eye, catching a glimpse at the wonder next to him and considering how something so small could give off the feelings that he was tasting. He was floored with excitement and there was a goofy grin plastered onto his face that he couldn't get rid of. The girl's aura was truly contagious, filling him up with emotions that he hadn't felt for himself in decades, and he could feel the contentment spilling accidentally out of him. If there had been anyone near Alice and himself, they would have found themselves with the same feelings building within themselves. He simply couldn't contain it within his own body. Happily spinning out of control.

Jasper had always thought that love at first sight had been a myth. Surely, lust was unavoidable, but love? That was something that was built and blossomed out of the combination of that previous lust and devotion and friendship. He hadn't felt someone experience anything of the sort, and didn't think it possible.

He had clearly been wrong.

Without a flicker of doubt, he knew that he was head over heels in love with Alice and had been from the second he had walked into the diner, and probably well before that. He had always been in love with her, simply waiting for them to meet. He just didn't know it yet.

"How long have you been waiting for me?" The idea that she knew he was coming and that she simply waited for him to arrive was astonishing. If the situations had been reversed and he had been the one sitting in the diner, he would have been miserable. The wait would have been even more torturous then it had been for him roaming the country. Knowing that these feelings were coming, but hadn't arrived yet, would have been more painful then the duress he had been in, like the shipwreck victims dying of thirst whilst surrounded by the ocean. Such an outlook on life Alice had, so sure of herself and her path. Their path.

"In the diner? Two months. I couldn't see when you were going to show up, so I waited around until you did. I've always been waiting for you though." As she turned her head to face him, Jasper was overwhelmed once more. Her grin lit up her entire face as well as his heart and she chuckled lightly, "About time you showed up."

"I feel the same way." He whispered quietly. If he had known that such an exquisite prize was waiting for him, he would have travelled faster; left Maria years ago in order to be with her. "Why haven't we found each other before now?" The thought of being apart again was truly agonizing, something he didn't dare imagine.

"It wasn't time yet." Alice said simply, and he could feel her fingers tighten slightly against his own. Her feet slowed to a stop. "We're home." Jasper looked up to see a small log cabin in front of them, nestled into the surrounding trees. "You have a house? How did you get it?" Few vampires had traditional houses, most preferring to shun the human charade of living, roaming the countryside for prey. Why need a home when they had no need for anything within it. He hadn't given it much thought, but now standing in front of the cabin, seeing the curtains hanging in the windows and the outline of furniture on the inside, it was wonderful. He had been a monster for years. How had he been granted a reward such as Alice? She was perfection defined.

"Would you be horribly upset if I told you that I sometimes use my visions to cheat at card games?"

The laughter that erupted out of him sounded foreign to his ears. Alice spun around to face him, grabbing his free hand with her own, and looked up at him. "I like that sound. I've never heard it before." How long had it been since he had actually laughed? Years to be certain. His life had changed so completely in just a few short hours. He was almost drunk with her entire existence. Staring down into her face he could see his dark eyes reflected in her gold ones, happiness shining back at him, mood mirroring his own.

Early into their walk he had asked her about her peculiar coloured eyes, glowing yellow in contrast to his darkened red ones. She had explained that they were golden because she hunted animals, not humans, which changed their colour, as she had seen another coven do in her visions; a coven that they would someday meet. He wanted to try hunting animals immediately, to be free of the emotions that went along with his hunting of humans, but Alice had told him that it wouldn't end well. She had seen that she wouldn't be able to restrain him, and that the scent of human blood calling to him would be too strong to ignore no matter how dedicated he was to the idea. After all the years that he had spent with humans at his immediate disposal, he wouldn't be able to stop without more assistance. They needed these Cullens' to help him change. It was going to be a long battle, but they would find them in time. She just didn't know when. He wouldn't be causing and feeling the human's pain forever, and knowing that was an immense relief in itself. The thirst would remain, but he could be sated. She had given him an escape from himself.

Suddenly, Jasper was the one who could see the future. He could see it opening up in front of his eyes. He was happy and warm and full of love complete with odd, yellow eyes that matched hers and his arms were wrapped tightly to the anchor that was now holding him together. The piece that made him complete.

All he could see was Alice.

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Thanks for reading. This story is now complete. Reviews are lovely :)


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